"During one of my lectures on the nonprofit sector, a student asked me to make the name of profit a company engaged in resolving social problems the same way as nonprofit organizations, said that it would be difficult for me to mention a company that does not do . Our young people grow up with the strange belief that the only way to do something good in the world is working for a nonprofit or becoming the next Bill Gates and create a private foundation, or concentrate on "social entrepreneurship", often without understand their meaning.

Etymologically, the word philanthropy means a feeling of love (from the greek φιλία, philia) against human beings (from the greek ἄνθρωπος, Anthropos). In current usage a philanthropist is a generous person who does charity work.

This definition, even on the day of his death at the age of 56, makes me think of Steve Jobs.

He returned to Apple in 1997, says that Jobs stopped all charitable programs to cut expenses because of financial difficulties the company was meeting, rumors spread that these programs were never recovered.

An article on Jobs published in 2006, titled "A great wealth does not make someone a great man", said that despite a wealth of 3.3 billion dollars, as Jobs did not appear in the lists of major donors. After moving to the indictment, the article acknowledged the possibility of donations anonymously and went, so heavy, saying: "It 's shocking that Jobs is insensitive to a case which should have a deep meaning for him ... In fact it is ill with cancer and was able to overcome it. But unlike Armstrong, has undertaken very little fundraising. [...] It's just a greedy capitalist who has managed to put together a fortune. It is shameful ... Bill Gates is worth more than the "rock star corporate America" ​​(as defined Jobs). For the same reason, Bono is more admirable when Mick Jagger and John Lennon over Elvis, these people have talked about things far more important than their celebrity. "This is undeniable, but their fame was partly related to the things of they were talking about.

In an interview in 1985, Jobs said that we must have as much free time to make donations and that "to learn to do something well, you must be wrong ... the problem in the field of fundraising, is that no system of measurement, so you can not tell whether an initiative has been a failure or a success .. so it is very difficult to improve. [...] When I have a little 'time, I will create a public foundation. "

In 1986 he did, but the foundation closed its doors after only 15 months. According to the person he hired to manage the foundation, Jobs did not have the time to look after; friends instead of Jobs claimed that his decision had depended on his conviction to do the best interest of the community by expanding the Apple. And thank goodness!

Imagine what would have been lost to mankind if instead of devoting himself to what he does best, Jobs had spent the last 25 years of his life thinking about how to donate his billions to charity.

Today we would not have the ability to read e-mail or surf the internet from the phone, and this goes for everyone: students, doctors, nurses, volunteers, leaders of nonprofit organizations, social workers, etc.. The Jobs work has helped the blind to read the texts and allowed them to recognize coins, has allowed physicists to deepen their research and surgeons to improve performance in the operating room, has been helping nonprofit organizations to collect funds.

Without the work of Jobs, we would still be at least ten years away from the iPad, which introduced the era of digital reading, thanks to which we can save entire forests and conserve all the energy needed to transport the timber and paper production. And it is only the beginning. Physicians use the iPad to improve health care, to treat autism and is also a good tool for stimulating children's creativity and allowed us to revolutionize medical training.

And we certainly can not say if he had not Jobs, we would have thought someone else; technologically advanced tools we have today have been inspired only by his ideas.

We had to wait who knows how many years before having a user-friendly mechanism to put music in electronic format without stealing it continues to burn CDs, which means it would produce even hundreds of millions of CDs with plastic enclosure.

There exist the 34,000 full-time jobs created by Apple, not to mention all the manufacturing jobs that revolve around the company.

There would not even the wealth that the company has created for millions of Americans who have bet on it.

There would be no video conferencing, our computers would continue to go haywire ... And 'possible to quantify the value of all the time not be wasted to fix them?

We would do less than an entire way of thinking about computers, about leadership, the business ... our potential.

The truth is that what really matters is how we use our time on this earth, not how much money we donate, the courage and energy we spend in combat cynicism and mediocrity, facing those who seek to trample on our dreams and maximizing our potential.

If we consider all this, then we can say that there is no bigger than a philanthropist Steve Jobs. If ever a man has made ​​significant contributions to humanity, this man is he. And he did as he fought against cancer.

During a recent interview, Bono defends Jobs, saying that Apple was the most generous supporter of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, with donations of tens of millions of dollars. Bono also said that the fact that a person has lots of commitments does not imply that cares about the common good. Steve Jobs has devoted his life to the advancement of humanity, not to his own pleasure, we are not dealing with a man who has spent his life building houses or yachts, obsessed with how to spend its billions on his personal pleasure, you can not even say that he has never had much free time to devote to himself.

And apparently, the surprises do not end there ... Jobs' this man and his vision, still donate to humanity. "

This commentary on the death of Steve Jobs who handed me a colleague of mine in English, is from the blog of Dan Pallotta, a lively Italian-American scholar, (and which I have just translated), is really nice, shiny, clear. Steve Jobs is not only a great businessman, and a great creative, but above all as a man committed to do well what he liked (and that did best).

Steve Jobs has devoted his life to the advancement of humanity, has joined the common good and personal pleasure. Jobs was one of those men, rare but not rare, it has always been able to match the realization of itself and its goals, creating opportunities for themselves by creating opportunities and well-being for others. And all this is in character, and for courage, capacity for both, but especially for his great attachment to reality.